CESAREAN SECTION, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE TIME OF OPERATION AND ITS TECHNIC

One familiar with the history and progress of abdominal surgery must be impressed with the similarity in the development of ovariotomy and Cesarean section. The latter operation is much older than ovariotomy, but the indications for its application are less definite and positive, and it has been universally regarded as a final and desperate effort at delivery when other measures have been tried and have failed. Like ovariotomy in its early development, Cesarean section has been fostered under the care of a few operators, who have struggled on in their efforts despite the discouragement of a heavy mortality. That the Cesarean operation is so far behind ovariotomy and hysterectomy in professional favor and in general application when indicated is due for the greater part to the fact that the surgeon competent to do the operation rarely has access to the patient until she is exhausted, often infected, by futile efforts